1965 Chevrolet Impala Super Sport

The '65 Impala was a great looking car, but I feel like it was all down hill from here. After that year, the Impala kept getting bigger. (Why? This car is huge!) It also started getting a more "formal" look. By 1971, forget it - that Impala was a land yacht.
* '65 was the last year for the round tail lights.
* The Super Sport package did not automatically mean a big V-8. Some Impala SS cars have a straight 6!

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1966 Avanti II

The Studebaker factory in Indiana closed in December, 1963. Soon a couple of guys got the idea to reopen a portion of the factory and continue making Studebaker's interesting fiberglass coupe, the Avanti. This business managed to run successfully into the 1980s, which is impressive when one considers that in a typical week they only sold two cars. The frames were built in the old factory, the bodies supplied by the same company that had made them for Studebaker, and the engines came from General Motors. Although an Avanti II made in the early-1980s is hardly distinguishable from one made in the mid-60s, I think this is one of the very early cars. I've never seen an Avanti II before that had the old Studebaker wheel covers. Most Avanti II were sold with Magnum 500 rims or similar newer wheels.

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1978 Lincoln Continental Mark V

First let me say that this can be a reasonably attractive car (in a disco sort of way), at least when painted blue with a matching top or some other color scheme that doesn't make your eyes burn. This Continental's color isn't pink exactly, nor would I call it salmon. It reminds me of the off-pink that Crayola crayons used to call, "flesh".

This car would have run you at least $14K in 1978, or $50K in 2020 dollars. Given the high price point, and the fact that in the late '70s America was in the midst of a crushing energy crisis, you might think that Ford had a hard time selling cars like this. Well that's where you'd be wrong. Ford sold 72,600 of these in 1978, and also sold a staggering 565,000 Ford Thunderbirds and Mercury Cougars; land yachts scarcely smaller than the behemoth pictured here. Who can explain anything from the '70s?

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